Trump heads to Michigan to compete with Biden for union votes while his GOP challengers debate
CTV
As his Republican rivals gather onstage in California for their second primary debate, former President Donald Trump will be in battleground Michigan on Wednesday night working to win over blue-collar voters in the midst of an autoworkers' strike.
As his Republican rivals gather onstage in California for their second primary debate, former President Donald Trump will be in battleground Michigan on Wednesday night working to win over blue-collar voters in the midst of an autoworkers' strike.
Trump's trip comes a day after President Joe Biden became the first sitting president in U.S. history to walk a picket line as he joined United Auto Workers in Detroit. The union is pushing for higher wages, shorter work weeks and assurances from the country's top automakers that new electric vehicle jobs will be unionized.
The duelling appearances reflect what will likely be a chief dynamic of the 2024 general election, which is increasingly looking like a rematch between Trump and Biden. Michigan is expected to be a critical battleground state as both candidates try to paint themselves as champions of the working class.
Trump is scheduled to deliver primetime remarks at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Clinton Township, about a half-hour outside Detroit. He'll speak before a crowd of several hundred current and former UAW members, as well as members of plumbers and pipefitters unions.
Trump has tried to capitalize on the strike to drive a wedge between Biden and union workers, a constituency that helped pave the way for the ex-president's surprise 2016 victory. Trump in that election won over voters in Democratic strongholds like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, fundamentally reshaping voting alliances as he railed against global trade deals and vowed to resurrect dying manufacturing towns.
But Biden won those states back in 2020 as he emphasized his working-class roots and commitment to organized labour. He often calls himself the " most pro-union president" in U.S. history and argues the investments his administration is making in green energy and electric vehicle manufacturing will ensure the future of the industry unfolds in the U.S.
Trump, this time around, is seeking to capitalize on discontent over Biden's handling of the economy amid persistent inflation. He has repeatedly warned Biden's embrace of electric vehicles -- a key component of his clean-energy agenda -- will ultimately lead to lost jobs, amplifying the concerns of some autoworkers who worry that electric cars require fewer people to manufacture and that there is no guarantee factories that produce them will be unionized.
